Female Flatfoot and Snarky Guy

Left: dumb bunny. Right: sly fox. They fight crime.

Decker: I've been calling you for three weeks. Why are you avoiding me?
Lucifer: Well, I do have a business to run, detective. I can't play Good Cop/Handsome Devil Cop all the time!

— Lucifer (2016)

A Sub-Genre of Buddy Cop Show where the two "buddies" are:

1. A policewoman (or detective, or any kind of crime solver). She could be either a young rookie who thinks that she will make a difference or a seasoned cop who was a wide-eyed rookie but lost her idealism along the way. In any case she is strict with herself and the others, firmly believes in the system and is almost Always Lawful Good. And since everyone in fiction looks good, you could also expect her to be a Fair Cop. More often than not, her father was also a cop, which avoids the writers having to come up with a complicated explanation for why she chose her job.
2. A snarky male Deuteragonist who does not work with the law, but who somehow teams up with the cop to solve one or multiple case(s). Unlike the policewoman, he is Street Smart which makes him a powerful and unlikely ally to the cop who needs him despite her reluctance to work with this kind of petty criminal. However, he is often a Jerk with a Heart of Gold and the lawful influence of the cop brings out the best in him, even eventually convincing him to go straight. He does not necessarily need to be a criminal though, good variants include a flamboyant writer or an Intrepid Reporter.

The reasons that those two people have to work together vary. For the policewoman, he usually is her only witness and/or her last lead. For the guy, it is whether because it affects his business, to be in the good books of the police, to clear his or a friend's name or just because he likes that. Or maybe he just doesn't have the choice. The male sidekick has a much higher than random chance of having a "posh" English accent, and of having his name or job description as the show's title.

This kind of pairing is mostly used in comedies, playing the opposition between The Comically Serious policewoman and the snarky civilian and their Teeth-Clenched Teamwork. However, you could expect a healthy dose of drama as well with the Backstory of each character who has a Dark and Troubled Past that led her/him in this path, cue them having a better understanding of each other and tightening their bond. They have a Strictly Professional Relationship, which of course brings its fair share of "Will They or Won't They?" since Opposites Attract.

Often overlaps with Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl (when the cop is of the "idealist rookie" kind), Monster and the Maiden (if the flatfoot is a human woman and the snarky guy is something else), Strong Girl, Smart Guy and Straight Woman And Wise Guy. Compare Dating Catwoman if they eventually cross that line.

Gender inversions of this trope are possible, but less common.

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Examples:

Comic Books

• Batman's relationship with Catwoman can be a Gender Inversion of the trope. But many factors have to align and are Depending on the Writer, it's rather complicated ("Dating Catwoman" is named like this for a reason).
• The French children series Theo Toutou presents a convoluted subversion: famed author Theo Toutou often helps male Inspector Duraton in his cases but the latter doesn't really ever team up with Theo, often being The Cavalry at the end of the stories. However Theo is teaming up with female cat librarian Natacha in most of the cases.

Fan Works

• A popular Fandom-Specific Plot for RWBY fanfics is to have Winter Schnee and Qrow Branwen paired up on an investigation. Considering that, in canon, their mutual Establishing Character Moment was a vitriolic argument that escalated into a sword fight, the potential for drama (or comedy) is practically endless.

Films — Animation

• Lucy Wilde and a Reformed, but Not Tamed Gru in Despicable Me 2. Mostly the Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl side of the trope is used in this pairing, and they end up Happily Married at the end.
• Secret Magic Control Agency: Gretel is following in her parents' footsteps working for the SMCA, with a great track record of completing missions and on her way to earning the title of Best Agent just like they did. Hansel, on the other hand, is a con artist who sells fake magic to gullible people, and is forcefully recruited to work with his sister on this particular mission, since the agency believes his abilities would be useful for tracking down the king.
• In Zootopia, rookie Officer Judy Hopps needs the help of resident con fox Nick Wilde to solve a missing mammal case as he is her only lead. Officer Hopps is an enthusiastic and generally By-the-Book Cop, yet is willing to bend the rules in pursuit of justice. By the end of the film, Nick joins the police force.

Films — Live-Action

• The film adaptation of The Da Vinci Code, like the book itself, pairs the female detective Sophie Neveu with cryptologist Robert Langdon. Though Langdon isn't snarky, he is being pursued by police captain Bezu Fache as a prime suspect in the murder of museum curator Jacques Sauniere.
• The film adaptation of Mortal Kombat: The Movie sees the tough Sonya Blade and the pompous Johnny Cage being Promoted to Love Interest, using the good ol' Two Guys and a Girl trope when they end up together (though the controversial sequel immediately kills off Johnny). Interestingly, this got eventually Ret Canonised in the 2009 video game soft reboot (minus the whole "immediately killed" thing).
• A male/male (and completely platonic) example with Luc Besson's Taxi series in which Clueless Detective Emilien has to work with Badass Driver Daniel Morales.
  • The American Remake is a complete Gender Flip of the trope, with a male detective played by Jimmy Fallon and a female taxi driver played by Queen Latifah.
  • The trope is then played straight in the In Name Only series adaptation Brooklyn Taxi with a completely different cast using the same character archetypes but this time with a female officer named Cat and a male taxi driver named Leo.

Literature

• Ciaphas Cain ^note HERO OF THE IMPERIUM and Amberley Vail have this dynamic in several stories. Played with, in that Vail's experience as an Inquisitor has made her, in some ways, more savvy and cynical than Cain. (He's still the snarkier of the two, which is saying something.)
• The Da Vinci Code pairs the female detective Sophie Neveu with cryptologist Robert Langdon. Though Langdon isn't snarky, he is being pursued by police captain Bezu Fache as a prime suspect in the murder of museum curator Jacques Sauniere.
• In The Dresden Files, Lieutenant Karrin Murphy of the Chicago police force often teams up with civilian consultant (and practicing wizard) Harry Dresden in order to solve crimes of a supernatural nature. While Harry's non-stop snark and disrespect for authority and Murphy's frustration and irritation at having to seriously work with someone who calls himself a wizard create friction in the first few books, they do eventually come to respect and care for each other as close friends and later more.
• In Death: Detective Eve Dallas's husband Roarke often get involved in her cases, sometimes by coincidence, sometimes by volunteering his help when he thinks she could use it. He is a former street criminal who went legitimate and became a billionaire and the combination of his old talents and his enormous wealth make him very useful to Eve and her squad.
• In the Nikki Heat novels (originally a Show Within a Show of the Castle TV series that was defictionalized), the tough, savvy Detective Heat (based on Kate Beckett) is paired up with journalist Jameson Rook (an Author Avatar of Rick Castle).
• In Jack Reacher "Make Me", Michelle Chang, a former FBI Agent, has this dynamic with Knight Errant Jack Reacher, although it's also a case of Opposites Attract with the Walking the Earth Jerk with a Heart of Gold protagonist hooking up with the female detective towards the end. It does take a lot of exposition to get to this point though.

Live-Action TV

• Played with in Angel with Angel and detective Kate Lockley. The Comically Serious Angel is the main character, and Kate only shows up occasionally, but they sometimes team up to deal with supernatural cases she can't handle on her own.
• Dempsey and Makepeace: She's a competent but single London cop (who is also titled hereditary aristocracy), he's a cleaned-up Dirty Harry type from the NYPD who gets unexpectedly made her partner for reasons that are never mentioned again after the pilot episode.
  (After Lady Harriet Makepeace addresses Lt Dempsey with the English pronounciation "Lef-tenant")
  Dempsey: You know how to say "Lootenant", don'tcha? Just put your lips together and go "OO".
• A downplayed version in Agent Carter in which Agent Peggy Carter teams up with snarky butler Jarvis. Downplayeed because even though Jarvis was snarky, he was also more skittish and uncomfortable going into danger, while Carter was an outgoing secret agent.
• The first season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. had a Gender Flip version of the trope with stoic and professional agent Grant Ward and snarky hacker Skye who just integrated Coulson's team. Their relationship bloomed throughout the season under each other's influence, with Skye progressively becoming more focused and professional while slowly Defrosting Ward until The Big Damn Kiss. Unfortunately, Ward actually was The Mole though he really felt for her and the betrayal strengthened Skye's convictions to become an agent even more.
  • Bobbi Morse and Lance Hunter from the same series and the Most Wanted Spin-Off also are a version of the trope (the former being an tough undercover agent and the letter a snarky mercenary), but add to that fact that they are a divorced couple in a Love-Hate Relationship. By the end of season 2, they are back together and Hunter officially joins S.H.I.E.L.D.
• Castle features by-the-book cop Kate Beckett and bestselling mystery novelist Richard Castle. Castle became involved in one of her cases because he was a suspect. He later bribed the mayor to let him tag along on subsequent cases, theoretically for research but in reality because he had a crush on Beckett. See also Nikki Heat in the Literature folder.
• Depending on what brain she is "on", iZombie's Olivia Moore can be the snarky civilian to Detective Babineaux in a Gender Inversion of the trope. However, the genders are used straight when Olivia uses her connection with the police to investigate on her own, followed by her friend Ravi who is always snarky (or the non less flamboyant weatherman Johnny Frost in one episode, however he turned out to only be an Helpful Hallucination).
• In Lucifer, the eponymous and devilish protagonist helps the LA detective Chloe Decker to solve different cases by using his connections and powers of suggestion. At first it was personal but then he continued to help Chloe because he found that fun.
• The Mentalist has Patrick Jane, a former stage psychic and con-man, working with California Bureau of Investigation special agent Teresa Lisbon. He has put his bad past behind him, mostly, but he's still a Gadfly who loves messing with people's minds.
• Remington Steele follows the case-solving adventures of private investigator Laura Holt, a serious detective paired with dashing but capricious Remington Steele.
• Rosewood: Inverted. Snarky and world-weary Detective Annalise Villa of the Miami PD teams up with Dr. Beaumont Rosewood Jr., a private forensic pathologist with a zest for life who tries to convince her to open up and enjoy herself, even as he gets a thrill out of leaving the lab and joining her on cases.
• Although Bones is not this trope, the 200th episode special ("The 200th in the 10th") is done in the style of a 1950s big budget crime caper film with Brennan as a new LAPD detective faced with sexism on the force, and Booth as a notorious jewel thief - who is framed for murder. The two team up to clear Booth and catch the real killer.
• In Sleepy Hollow, modern day detective Abbie Mills teams up with American Revolution soldier Ichabod Crane to fight supernatural monsters plaguing her town. Since Crane is a noble and polite gentleman, most of his snark comes from being a Fish out of Temporal Water both marveled and dismayed by the future.
• Fringe teams Olivia Dunham, an Action Girl FBI agent, with Peter Bishop, a snarky semi-reformed Con Man. They kick ass together in the field while the lab is ruled by Peter's Mad Scientist father, Walter.
• The Blacklist has FBI most-wanted crime boss (and international man of mystery) Raymond "Red" Reddington walk into FBI HQ and surrender, with an offer to help capture other criminals, but on condition that he is partnered with naive young recently-married FBI trainee Lizzie Keen, who had never met him, for reasons he does not explain.

Video Games

• Zigzagged with Sly Cooper and Carmelita Fox who alternate between being enemies (Carmelita chasing Gentleman Thief Sly) and working together for a common goal (and add to that an obvious sexual tension between the two).
• Sonya Blade and B-movie star Johnny Cage, mostly since Mortal Kombat 9 (which may have been inspired by their relation in the 1995 movie). In Mortal Kombat X, it is revealed that they Hooked Up Afterwards, had a daughter but eventually divorced because Sonya was Married to the Job.
• Disney Heroes: Battle Mode offers some sort of sequel to Zootopia with Judy this time teaming up with Finnick to find an underground fight club (while Nick is on his own stolen ring case with Yax). This might be inspired by the original script to Zootopia in which Nick created a fight club for the oppressed predator cast that Judy was trying to find.
• Cyberpunk 2077: Allows a gender inversion: By-the-Book Cop River Ward can team up with a female/feminine V, who works as a mercenary. First, they can solve the case of the mysterious death of Night City's mayor, and later on they can catch a serial killer who kidnapped River's nephew.

Western Animation

• Dan and Elise (who is secretly a spy/ninja) have this relationship is some episodes of Dan Vs. in which they find a common enemy, whether it is by pure hatred of it or to protect Chris.
• In Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2015), two of the main characters are young cadet Strongarm and speed addict Sideswipe. In the pilot, Strongarm arrested Sideswipe for his dangerous behavior, but then they were both coincidentally dragged along Bumblebee on Earth. A good portion of the first season consists of the two of them bickering but progressively learning from each other.

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